Shibboleth looks like an interesting approach to the online identity problem.
“People will admire the wonderful tiles and carpets of applications on top of this, but [Shibboleth] will be utterly invisible.”
John Patrick, my retired boss, used to be highly vocal on the need for a generally available digital certificate infrastructure. Unfortunately I think Microsoft .NET will becomes that infrastructure by virtue of it’s ubiquity.
The BBC have an article about wireless power chargers for gadgets. I first saw this a few weeks ago, and so long as device manufacturers buy in, this could be huge. An end to the multiplying charger bricks!
It doesn’t surprise me that the US tried to stop the European Union (EU) from developing Galileo, but I’m glad to hear that they stood up and made an independent decission. The objection, raised by the US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, was that a planned upgrade to GPS would use a different or wider ferquency, and Galileo would interfere with it. So now we’re all supposed to stop research based on what someone else might do?
I hope that this impending war doesn’t cause the sort of worldwide political instability that I fear it will. Unfortunately, I suspect that the long term fallout will be huge. It’s already wreaking havoc with the UK Labour Government.
Anti war sentiment is heating up, with protesters painting ‘No War’ on the Sydney Opera House. I couldn’t find a decent photo, but I imagine it’s quite a shocking statement visible from a good distance. I wonder how nobody saw them doing this; painting something so large had to take some time?
Back in January Ed wrote a nice summary of Superbowl 1998 and IBMs involvement. It brings a smile to my face, fondly remembering those times. How easy it is to forget the pain of the past as it fades from memory; something that our governments have failed to consider before they embarked on the inevitable war they are about to wage.
Thunderbirds are go again! At least Captain Scarlet might be.
Musician Brian Eno writes in Time Magazine:
Europeans have always looked at America with a mixture of fascination and puzzlement, and now, increasingly, disbelief. How is it that a country that prides itself on its economic success could have so many very poor people? How is it that a country so insistent on the rule of law should seek to exempt itself from international agreements? And how is it that the world’s beacon of democracy can have elections dominated by wealthy special interest groups? For me, the question has become: “How can a country that has produced so much cultural and economic wealth act so dumb?” [more...]
Meanwhile in the House of Representatives they’re renaming the french fries: well that’s a sign of a balanced democratic organisation, run by open-minded adults, isn’t it?